Day number two on the MSC Divina and we’re docked in Port Canaveral, Florida… home to… well, not much, except the Kennedy Space Center. We were contemplating renting a car and going to Disney World for a few hours but thought it would be more of a hassle than anything, so we stayed on board.
We arrived at the port around 6:30am. How do I know that? Well, with our stateroom being aft, we were directly above the ship’s azipods and thrusters. When the MSC Divina started to make her way into the turning basin and the thrusters were powered up, our bed and everything in the stateroom vibrated and made enough racket to serve as a wake-up call.
There was no going back to sleep at that point.
While me and my fiancee are not sensitive to the ship’s motion and vibration, for those that are I recommend picking a stateroom in another part of the ship, as the vibration was quite intense and noisy.
When it came time to get up and grab breakfast, we decided to hit the buffet two decks up. On this particular day, breakfast was being served from 6:30am – 10:30am. We arrived a little before 10am and nearly every seat was taken. It was quite apparent that the majority of people felt like I did and did not find Port Canaveral worthy of stepping off the ship for.
We found two seats at a counter and I held them while my fiancee when to grab his breakfast. He came back about 30 minutes later, disgusted and telling me about people fighting with people cutting in line, tempers flaring over long lines for eggs and the inability to find syrup for his pancakes.
He sat down and I went to grab some food for myself. I was shocked at the lines at every single station. I’ve never seen the buffet backed up this much on other cruises I’ve been on. I also saw people piling food on their plate and hoarding it like they were never going to eat again. People were indeed getting frustrated waiting in line and barking at people who tried to sneak in to grab a banana. (I happened to see one woman take not one or two bananas, but five and stuff them in her bag and walk out.)
I waited in line for 15 minutes before I simply had enough. I left, walked back to where we were sitting and said, “let’s grab a cab and go somewhere for breakfast.”
As we wandered around contemplating getting off the ship and finding a local spot for breakfast, we decided to hold off for an hour and go to the main dining room and enjoy a more civilized lunch instead.
So we headed down to the Piazza del Doge on Deck 6, had a cold beverage and a sampling of the different pastries available onboard. We ordered the sampler which included some really good things including a strawberry tart, rum baba, eclair and more. (Note: the pastries were not free, but came with a charge depending on what you ordered.)
On to lunch. We got to the dining room a little after noon and were swiftly taken to a table where others were already seated. I asked for a table for two and were taken to a table for two, which was actually four tables separated by three inches of space between them, so we basically sat at a table of eight.
Oh well, so much for a little private lunch.
I ordered one of the lunch specials which was a meatball sub, my fiancee ordered the fish and chips and we shared an appetizer order of bbq chicken wings. Safe to say for lunch the food was good and we enjoyed it all.
Throughout the day the ship was pretty much packed, as most people stayed on board the entire day. We wandered around and found that most areas outside were pretty crowded, but there were still lounge chairs available around the pool. Most of the bars inside were closed making the pool bar the place to be for a cold drink or two.
Sailaway was scheduled for 5pm and we took in the action from our balcony, as we watched two Carnival and one Royal Caribbean ship depart before us.
Before we got ourselves freshened up for dinner, we stopped by the Sports Bar for a quick snack and a few beers. We ordered the appetizer sampler ($) which included a few wings, mozzarella sticks, and onion rings and bowled one game ($8) in the mini bowling alley in the bar before heading back to our stateroom.
The evening’s show was “Simply Italian” and one I’ve seen already. Before heading to the theater for the 8:45pm performance, we stopped by the Black and White lounge for a pre-dinner cocktail and to watch the Tarantella dance lesson. I never knew the dance was that complicated! We didn’t partake in the lesson but watched as about two dozen passengers did their best to learn this Italian dance.
The show was a mix of Italian singing, dancing, and acrobatics, with a slightly different cast than on the previous two cruises on the MSC Divina. The vocalists were not as good as the ones from my previous time onboard. The show was enjoyable as usual.
Again, we did not do the main dining room for dinner but set our sights upon having some of the great pizza that is just incredible onboard. We headed to Pizza Eataly which offers up about a dozen different pies, including “A Meter of Pizza” – a huge pizza – literally a meter long!
We could not resist.
We ordered four different types of our meter of pizza and accompanied it with a meter of beer in addition to a wine sampler that came with an assortment of appetizers along with three glasses of wine (red or white or a mix). Note that the pizza, meter of beer and wine sample are all an extra charge.
The pizza was simply fantastic and I’m a little embarrassed to say that we ate nearly all of it, it was that good. The pizza made at Pizza Eataly is different than the pizza made at the buffet, however… they are both delicious!
After a great pizza, beer, and wine dinner, we headed up to the Galaxy Disco for Rock & Roll Night where we found the crowd to be much livelier than the previous night. Plenty of folks, including us, were out on the dance floor working off the calories from dinner. I know we didn’t dance nearly enough to burn off what we took in!
About an hour of dancing later, we were pretty much ready for bed and hit the sheets around 1am.
In just a few hours we were set to arrive in Nassau, Bahamas… a port I don’t recommend getting off at. More on that in the Day 3 review of this 3-day Independence Day cruise aboard the MSC Divina!
Personal Day-By-Day MSC Divina Cruise Review:
Photo Tour of the MSC Divina:
Photography is a key aspect of preserving vacation memories, and my recent voyage aboard the MSC Divina was no exception. From the ship’s striking interior design and inviting swimming pools to my own cozy cabin, I captured numerous photos that showcase the highlights of my journey. If you’d like to take a look at my snapshots, feel free to check out the MSC Divina Photo Tour or browse the daily cruise review by clicking on the links provided above.